Call for Judgment: Variable?
4-1. Reached a quorum of votes ‘for’. Put into effect by Excalabur.
Adminned at 11 Oct 2005 14:48:42 UTC
Rodney recently made an attack against me in Area 51 using the ‘assault’ attack. The text of Assault reads
A Country may Assault. This reduces the defender’s presence by any amount up to the attacker’s presence and reduces the attacker’s presence by that same amount, but no more than the defender’s original presence (before it was reduced). Assault cannot be used against a Country using the same government type as the attacker.
However, is ‘any amount’ required to be positive? Rodney assumed it was not, and reduced his and my presence by a large negative number. However, the glossary reads:
Unless otherwise specified, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers, and any action that would set those values below zero instead sets them to zero.
Is ‘any amount’ a game variable? I would posit that it is, as numbers come in two types, ‘variable’ and ‘constant’. As this is not a constant, it must be a variable. If you agree that the amount made in an assualt is a variable, vote FOR this CfJ. If this call for judgment passes, treat Rodney’s assault on Excalabur as having the amount reduced for both players being zero. Furthermore, in future when ‘any amount’ is specified, it shall be considered to be a game variable.
If, however, you felt that Rodney exploited a legitimate loophole, vote AGAINST this Call for Judgment.
Or else we will end writing holes like “reduce it by any amount that is not negative”.
Rodney:
-1,000,000,000 is always -1,000,000,000, therefore, it is a constant. Any amount means “Any number”. As it does not state what number, it is assumed that it is one of the Attacker’s choice. I choose -1,000,000,000.